The Intel Core i3-4160 is a dual-core four threaded 4th generation (Haswell) processor. It was released in Q3 2014 and scores a respectable 91 for effective speed. With its base frequency of 3.6 GHz, the 4160 is fast enough to run the vast majority of applications smoothly and it’s very reasonably priced for its performance which make it a sensible choice even when considering building a gaming PC. Although the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 are absolutely fine for general desktop use such as web browsing and word processing they may bottleneck a gaming machine. A 20% price premium would buy the slightly older i3-4350 which has a 33% larger (4MB) cache but its only about 1% faster (full comparison here). Overall the i3-4160 represents the best value for money I have seen outside Intel's Pentium and Celeron range of CPUs. [Nov '14CPUPro]

The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is the least powerful of three new Ryzen 7 CPUs. The 1700 model has base and turbo clocks of 3.0 and 3.7 GHz respectively. Both of its more expensive siblings, the 1700X and 1800X, have higher clocks but they also have TDPs of 95 watts whereas the 1700 is rated at just 65 watts. Comparing IPC between Ryzen and Kaby Lake shows that Kaby Lake leads by a maximum of 9% which is great news for workstation users as this allows the 1700 to beat Intel's 6850K in multi-core workloads at almost half the price. Although the 1700 has great IPC it's somewhat limited by its relatively low (by Kaby Lake standards) clock speed which holds it back a little in both gaming and desktop workloads. For multi-core workstation use, the Ryzen 7 1700 represents the best value for money we have ever seen. [Mar '17CPUPro]

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We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical gamers and desktop users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating which is geared towards gamers. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]

Welcome to our freeware PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best upgrades.